Box Score
SAN ANTONIO — It all went down in the ninth.
No. 7 St. Mary's gave Rattler fans a thriller on Senior Day Friday, winning with a walk-off hit over McMurry University after a tremendous last at-bat that had it go from scoreless to victory, 4-3.
It was
Adrian Garcia (RS-Jr., El Paso, Texas) who pulled up clutch in the heart-racing ninth that had the Rattlers down 3-0 at the start. Back-to-back walks of
Brandon Bates (Sr., Boerne, Texas) and
Al Gonzalez (RS-Fr., Pasedena, Texas) set up
Mario Maldonado (So., Laredo, Texas) to step up as he sliced a single to left that brought in Bates to put the Rattlers on the board, 3-1. Another walk, this time of
Billy Richard (Sr., Schertz, Texas), loaded the bases for
Keith Funk (RS-Fr., San Antonio), who hit a sacrifice fly to put the Rattlers within one, 3-2.
Enter Garcia, who's done this before.
With two outs and two on, Garcia smacked one to centerfield that brought in Maldonado for the tying run. The Rattlers' bench and fans then exploded as a fielding error by the War Hawks' centerfielder saw the speedy Richard advancing home all the way from first, diving in for the winning run to end the battle with a Rattler walk-off celebration.
Garcia was also responsible for a walk-off victory against University of Texas-Permian Basin earlier this season. With a tip from senior
Derek Moczygemba (Bulverde, Texas), he did it again Friday.
“Well I went up there and Derek told me that the pitcher had a change up, like a really good change up,” said Garcia, who went 3 for 4 Friday. “So I went up there looking for that change up and he happened to throw it and I just swung and luckily got the hit.”
Garcia lit up the whole series against the War Hawks (23-27) as he went 6 for 8 at the plate with two RBI.
Friday's exciting win had the Rattlers take the series 2-1 over the War Hawks and end their regular season 35-13 overall.
Carl O'Neal (Sr., San Antonio) had the quality start on the mound, pitching 6 1/3 scoreless innings before Moczygemba stepped in for two innings of relief.
Jonathan Perez (RS-Sr., San Antonio) was marked for the win as he closed out the final inning to improve to 6-2 on the season.
As Senior Day signifies the end of regular season, St. Mary's now looks ahead to the start of its postseason next weekend.
“That's our goal — we want to win the conference and get to the playoffs and ultimately go back to the World Series,” said head coach
Charlie Migl of the Rattlers' postseason future. “You just have to take everything one step at a time and I'm happy we're involved and hopefully we can get it going.”
As St. Mary's won the regular-season crown, it will host the tournament for the third straight season with this season's tourney being held at Incarnate Word. And the Rattlers will have an extra boost in experiencing their clutch abilities against McMurry.
“This was a good preparation game for the tournament,” said Garcia, who's hitting .293 on the season. “I expect we go to the tournament with the same attitude and give it all we've got.”
The Rattlers will host the tournament at Incarnate Word from Thursday-Saturday with times and opponents to be determined.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
